The U.S. job market is flashing warning signs, with multiple indicators dropping to their lowest levels since the 2020 pandemic.

MeNews · 2026-04-03T08:23:17+00:00

U.S. government job openings in February fell to 701k, the lowest since December 2020; private sector layoffs increased significantly, affecting Oracle, Amazon, and Block. Consumer confidence remains subdued, with the proportion of people who believe jobs are plentiful dropping to 27.3%, and labor market disparity indicators at their lowest levels since the pandemic.

MeNews

2026-04-03 08:23:17

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ME News update, April 3 (UTC+8), according to The Kobeissi Letter data, U.S. February government job openings fell to 701k, the second-lowest level since December 2020, down 524k from the 2022 peak. Federal government vacancies are only 89k left, the hiring rate fell to 1.4%, matching the lows of 2016 to 2017. Private companies also carried out massive layoffs in tandem: Oracle reportedly laid off up to 30k people, Amazon cut 16k positions, and Block cut more than 4,000 employees. In terms of consumer confidence, the share of people who think jobs are plentiful was only 27.3%, far below about 55% in 2022; the labor market disparity indicator fell to 5.8 percentage points, the lowest since the pandemic. Kobeissi noted that this indicator has long been a reliable leading signal of rising unemployment, and at the current level it has only appeared around economic recessions. (Source: ChainCatcher)

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